In recent years the furniture industry has developed a number of devices to guide and stabilize sliding drawers in desks, cabinets, dressers and other places. Modern furniture often includes drawers manufactured with caliper type engaging means which, when the drawer is opened or closed, the engaging means slides along a guide member to prevent a wobble in the drawer's path. Since the customers often judge the quality of furniture by the straightness and evenness of a drawer's movement, furniture manufacturers have attempted to maintain a smooth rectilinear path of drawer travel by the use of various guide means and constructions. Even though a straight, level drawer movement can be obtained with conventional drawer guide assemblies, various problems have remained until this time and have plagued the industry without adequate solution.
The first of these problems which persist with the drawer mounted caliper engaging means and the housing method guide member is proper selection of the correct initial path for the drawer so that the engaging means correctly grasps the drawer guide when the drawer is inserted in the housing. Furniture salesmen and customers often become frustrated and angry while attempting to reinsert a drawer into a desk, dresser or other piece of furniture since the engaging means on the drawer is designed to a close tolerance for a firm grip with the drawer guide, resulting in many attempts and failures before the drawer is finally inserted.
Another problem which currently exists with drawer mounted caliper type engaging means which slide along the drawer guide is the problem of drawers being accidentally over extended and dumped. Since owners of furniture generally do not know the limits to which a drawer will extend, oftentimes in haste a drawer will be pulled totally free of its housing and its contents will often be spilled with disastrous results.
With this background in mind the present invention was conceived and one of its objectives is to provide a drawer guide for engagement with a caliper type drawer mounted engaging means which is relatively easy to manufacture and is inexpensive in cost.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a drawer guide which includes a narrow frontal portion to assist in the initial insertion of a drawer into its housing.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a drawer guide having a stop means thereon which will prevent the drawer from being accidently over extended causing the contents of the drawer to be discharged.
Other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as further explained below.